


Thunder and Lightning

by dogmatix



Series: Revelations [2]
Category: Safehold Series - David Weber
Genre: F/M, GFY, Gen, Sharleyan finds out, Sharleyan is not happy, blood and death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 03:29:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11614935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogmatix/pseuds/dogmatix
Summary: Sharleyan learns more about Cayleb's bodyguard than she expected.





	Thunder and Lightning

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I worked on this, so I'm honestly kind of fuzzy on some of my logic here. Sharleyan isn't married to Cayleb yet because King Haarald survived and therefore it wasn't as urgent or...something. They are engaged though. In canon, Merlin wasn't there at the beginning of the attack.

The rain beat down hard outside the small, damp, dark cave, pattering steady and grey in the afternoon twilight. They didn’t dare risk a fire, and didn’t have anything to start one with even if they wanted to. Sharleyan curled her arms around her in a futile search for warmth.

 _That thing_ stood at the mouth of the small cave, staring out into the gloom as if he - _it_ \- could actually make out their searchers. Who knew, maybe it could. After all, who knew what a demon was capable of? Sharleyan shivered. She’d keep her rifle trained on it if she thought it would do any good, but the rain and damp had probably rendered the powder useless. Besides, the demon had already survived one bullet; it didn’t seem like a second would have much better luck.

She wondered, in moments nearing despair, if her fiancé knew that his trusted bodyguard was a demon. Would it be better or worse if he knew? Did she prefer a blind prince, too trusting to see the viper at his side, or the weak heretic, willing to barter his soul to the Mother of Lies for temporal power?

Even Merlin couldn’t tell her, whether he - _it_ \- wanted to or not. For Merlin was wounded. Not as a man might be wounded, with blood and pain and fever, but wounded in a way that marked it irrefutably as a demon, an unnatural thing. And it was Sharleyan’s own doing.

It seemed so unbelievable now, that she had originally come here for a vacation. St. Agatha’s was peaceful, away from court and all its demands. And with Caleb away on campaign, surely a few days’ peace wasn’t too much to ask. And surely she would be safe anywhere with eighty Charisian Marines and her fiancé’s own _seijin_ bodyguard to protect her?

But the attackers had been cunning, patient. While the storm raged outside, they’d crept into place, and half of her protectors had fallen before she’d known anything was wrong. It might well have been more than that, if the demon hadn’t suddenly spun around in alarm and fled her room with quickly snatched up pistols. It had called out to her that there were attackers coming, and to get to safety. So she had ended up in her room, firing relentlessly into the oncoming attackers while Daishyn Tayso and Carlsyn Raiyz reloaded for her. They had both fallen, leaving her alone to face the seemingly endless wave of enemies trying to force their way in through her window. She’d raised her musket for one last shot even as the man in front of her fell, head coming away from his body in a spray of thick, hot blood that striped her face with death, and the thing behind him, as the lightning flashed, was a demon, covered in blood, face blank, and-

She’d fired.

It had been instinctive, unthinking. An automatic response to an otherworldly threat. The musket had kicked viciously into her already abused shoulder, but her aim had been true. Where a man would have fallen though, the demon only staggered, hunching over before standing again.

Half its throat had been gone where she’d hit it, torn to shreds, gaping dark and ugly like a second, screaming mouth. And inside… sparks. Small twitches of light like fireflies. And no blood, no blood at all. Eyes fixed on her, it had stepped closer.

 

* * *

 

Merlin tensed like a hound catching a scent, one hand drifting over to the long dagger sheathed at its hip. Shaken from her thoughts, Sharleyan rose and put her hand on its arm before she was even aware of moving. She let go as if she’d been scalded, but the demon’s attention was on her.

“What…“ she asked, keeping her voice low. The demon seemed to want her alive, at least for now. That gave her a kind of courage, false though she knew it might be. It had even followed where she’d led when she’d run into the wilderness. Although perhaps it was more accurate to say that it had dogged her steps as she fled the demon and the massacre both.

Although she had to admit, if reluctantly, that it was only due to the demon’s uncanny abilities that they had found their current shelter.

But it was still a demon, and she couldn’t know if it would choose to strike down search parties from St. Agatha’s, if there were any, just as easily as it had cut down their pursuers.

The demon looked at her steadily, then back out at the rain. It waited a few moments more, then tapped its ear and pointed outside. _Listen_.

She strained her ears, almost forgetting to breathe, and there, beneath the rain, were human voices.

“-bitch – come out here – weather – why couldn’t - just die like the useless royal bitch she is?”

Someone laughed. “Aw c’mon, you mean you can’t take a little rain? Besides, she’s probably drowned out here already, now shut up and search.”

A snort. “They ain’t payin’ us enou- shit-“

Sharleyan’s breath left her and she stepped back, the sick feeling in her gut twisting unpleasantly.

Merlin slipped out into the rain, silent as a ghost.

Shivering, Sharleyan retreated to the rock she’d been using as a seat, putting her musket over her knees as if it weren’t even more useless than she was. Within moments the demon was back, any blood washed away by the downpour. It didn’t approach her, instead taking up its previous post at the mouth of the small cave. She must have fallen into a doze, fatigue and stress taking their toll at last, because the next thing she knew she was jerking up out of a slouch.

Merlin was half-in and half-out of the cave, waving.

She blinked. Why would- oh. Its voice was gone, of course. So if it wanted to attract attention-

“Merlin! Sharleyan?” A quiet but intense voice asked from just outside the cave. Cayleb. Cayleb was here.

“Cayleb,” Sharleyan choked, lunging forward to catch him in a tight, desperate hug as he entered the cave. The pure relief of having her fiancé there was overwhelming. Someone human, someone she could trust in all the madness. For a minute all that mattered was the tight hug pinning her to Cayleb, the quiet, insistent reassurances that it would be okay, that she was safe. And she truly and deeply did want that to be true, but then Cayleb turned to look at the demon, still hugging Sharleyan.

“Merlin, what happened-” Cayleb hissed in a shocked breath, “Oh God, your _throat_. Merlin, _are you okay?_ ”

It was the wrong kind of shock. Cayleb wasn’t surprised that Merlin was a demon, just that it’d been hurt. She went still and tense in his arms. “You know,” she said flatly. “You know it’s a demon.”

It still sounded so unbelievable. An actual _demon_ , not just a misled human, but an actual monstrous servant of Shan-wei. It was like something out of the _Writ_ , and even with everything she’d seen tonight – maybe _especially_ with that – it still didn’t seem quite _real_. But it was.

“How could you?” she asked, bewildered, angry, disappointed. She tried to break out of his grip, but he held on. “What do you get in return for betraying God, Cayleb? Tell me!”

“What- what are you talking about?” And oh God he sounded so bewildered.

“ _That_ ,” Sharleyan wrested one arm free and stabbed a finger viciously, “is a _demon_ , Cayleb. It’s not exactly being _subtle_ about it!”

She thought Merlin winched, but kept her attention fixed on Cayleb, who glanced at the demon, then looked back at her. It was difficult to see him in the gloom, but Cayleb’s voice was sure and strong when he answered.

“Yes, in some ways Merlin is a demon. But Sharleyan, I swear to you, before God, that Merlin is _not_ evil. I know Merlin, and he would _never_ serve the dark.”

She couldn’t seem to find any words for a moment. She wanted to believe the man she loved, but, “How can I trust you?”

“Sharleyan, didn’t Merlin save your life? I know this is… unbelievable, but Merlin hasn’t hurt you, has he? He’s never tried to convince you to do anything evil either, has he?”

No. She’d thought it was a _seijin_ , and although it had seemed a bit stronger and faster than she was used to, she’d never doubted that it was a good man. “I-“ She shivered violently, and Cayleb’s hand on her wrist – gentle and warm, not gripping so much as reassuring – squeezed gently.

“You’re freezing.”

It was full dark now, Sharleyan realized. Night had fallen, and she could barely make out the shadowy forms of Merlin and Cayleb against the blackness.

“I have the recon skimmer a short way from here. If we’re going to have this discussion, we can at least be warm and dry for it.”

The what? Merlin moved closer to them, and Sharleyan took a steadying breath. She wasn’t about to show her fear, not now.

“I know, Merlin,” Cayleb said, “but it’s not like the situation can get much worse, is it? Sharlayan. This is going to be frightening, but I swear to you, before God and on my father’s life, that no harm will come to you.”

She was lost, cold, and exhausted. Where could she run to? Everything she’d seen of Caleb told her that he was a good man, a good prince, but if he truly had given himself to Shan-wei, then none of his promises meant a thing. Could an evil man fake goodness so well that he could fool an entire kingdom? Fool her? And if he was merely misled, could she afford not to try to argue with him, to convince him of his folly? “All right.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sharleyan is not going to take this as well as in canon, needless to say. I may write up the conversation that follows this, but we'll see.


End file.
